When cleaning commercial buildings, such as offices, retail stores, warehouses, and the like, it is common for the floors of such buildings to be wet mopped regularly by janitorial personnel, or any other user, using commercial mops and roll-around cleaning containers. The use of portable cleaning containers, including bucket like containers in connection with various activities, including mopping floors, is well known in the art. Typical mop buckets have wheels secured at the bottom portion thereof, thereby allowing the container to easily move across various surfaces. Commercial mop buckets generally are made of molded plastic that contain water or cleaning solution for wetting the mop.
While numerous body styles have been proposed for mop buckets, the prior art containers have generally failed to address and solve problems relating to the comfort and ease of the person using them. For example, in order to empty these portable mop buckets, most must be actually lifted by the user and the contents emptied into a sink or other receptacle containing a drain. Since a portable mop bucket is generally very bulky and cumbersome to lift even when it is empty, it is understandable why such a cleaning container, filled with cleaning solution, is extremely difficult to lift and empty. There have been attempts made to design portable mop buckets which assist the user in emptying the mop buckets. For example, some mop buckets include a drain opening and stopper disposed in the side or bottom wall. This feature allows the user to move the mop bucket adjacent a floor drain, and by removing the stopper from the drain opening the mop bucket may be easily emptied. There are disadvantages with this particular design since the user has to physically push the stopper into the drain opening to maintain the stopper therein, while other stoppers may allow fluids to leak through the drain opening. In some cases, the user will be required to insert at least one of their hands into the dirty cleaning solution in order to insert or remove the stopper from the drain opening. Therefore, there is a need for a mop bucket having a plug that extends above the cleaning solution and effectively blocks the flow of cleaning solution through the drain opening.
Another problem with commercial mop buckets is due to clogging of drains when the container solutions are disposed, including insoluble materials such as contaminants, mop strings and the like in the drain. Further, after use it is often difficult to sanitize the container and to remove residual insoluble materials therefrom. Therefore, a need has long been recognized for an improved container for use in the cleaning or mopping of floors which solve these and other problems associated with conveniently and safely disposing of used cleaning solutions.
In addition, such mop buckets usually are provided with a wringer assembly for ringing excess water or cleaning solution from the mop after it has been dipped in the bucket and before it is applied to the floor. Wringer assemblies are available in a variety of forms such as, for example, down press wringers and side press wringers, but all function in substantially the same way by compressing the mopping yarns of the mop between opposed surfaces to squeeze excess absorbed liquid from the mop yarns. As liquid is squeezed from the mop yarns, it is expelled from the wringer through perforations or through other openings in the opposed surfaces of the wringer and falls back down into the bucket.
Wringers are typically mounted on the container during cleaning operations and are operable by a handle to squeeze the mop between a wall of the wringer and a movable plate. For convenience of use, the movable plate is spring biased away from such wall of the wringer, and the wringer comprises a mechanical linkage between the plate and the handle that extends the handle longitudinally of the wringer body at such times that the plate is displaced from such wall so that the handle extends generally vertically from the container upon which the wringer is mounted. A handle that extends vertically presents a potential danger to janitorial personnel and other individuals, who can accidentally contact the handle and trip over it or tip the bucket over, spilling its contents. Furthermore, if a bypasser slips near the bucket, he or she can seriously hurt themselves if they fall on the top of the handle. Therefore, there is a need for a bucket that can retain the handle in a retracted position, thereby improving safety for janitorial personnel and other individuals walking nearby.
Another problem with commercial mop buckets occurs when janitorial personnel need to take a break and leave the mop and mop bucket unattended. Since the mopping yarns are usually wet, the mop cannot conveniently be left on the floor and generally must be left in the mop bucket itself. However, since the handles of commercial mops tend to be relatively heavy, they tend to fall over and, in some cases, their weight can flip the entire mop out of the bucket resulting in a mess that must be cleaned. Accordingly, it has been common that, when a mop is to be left unattended, the bucket and mop are rolled to a wall or other structure and the mop handle is leaned against the wall to support it and prevent it from flopping over. This solution is a less than desirable, particularly in large open buildings such as warehouses, since the mop and mop bucket must be moved away from the area being mopped and returned when it is desired to continue the mopping operation. This is inconvenient and can add a surprising amount of unproductive time in simple relocation of the mop bucket during a large mopping operation. Thus, there is a need for a method and apparatus that will eliminate problems caused by mop handles falling over and flipping the mop out of its mop bucket when the mop is unattended. Such a method and apparatus should provide support for the mop handle without requiring that the mop bucket be moved from the area being mopped.
In order to accomplish these goals, those skilled in the art are constantly in search of improved means for filling above listed needs. The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention.